White light flashed again but this time it was faster than the blink of an eye—and then we were back in Eden. I spotted Headquarters for a brief moment before Silas pressed me against his chest, tucked his wings around us, and slid across the green grass. When we finally stopped sliding and he dropped his wings, we were clear across the massive courtyard between the school and Headquarters. Actually, we were almost to the forest line on the other side. For a second, I just breathed and braced for another attack.

No one moved around me, as if they, too, were afraid to trust that the Unseelies and demons hadn’t slipped through Tegan’s portal alongside us.

And then it was mayhem. Everyone was shouting and their auras were freaked the hell out. My ears were ringing in a high-pitched tone that was actually painful. Tenn shot up into the air, a bright white and gold contrast to the velvety black sky painted with twinkling stars. Michael’s sword crackled and popped like it wanted back into the fight.

He cursed then let out a deep sigh. “Tegan, give us clouds.”

There was a flash of rainbow and then thick, puffy white clouds blocked my view of the moon and stars. I frowned. It was a weird request. Eden had a magical boundary that prevented us from being seen and kept our enemies out—at least until Lilith’s magic got involved. Just as my confusion was turning into concern for our safety, three dragons shot into the sky like rockets, then disappeared into the clouds. I hadn’t seen that dark, charcoal-gray dragon in Avolire. In fact, I could only see him now because the green and ivory dragons made his scales stand out from the darkness.

A huge brown dragon with bright-orange eyes leaned over me and snorted, white puffs of smoke billowing from his nostrils. He nodded his head, growled, then lifted into the air like he was going to fly away, only to spin in wild circles like a dog with zoomies. Except his aura was wild with panic. I frowned and wondered why a dragon I’d never met would be this worried about me—I gasped.

“SILAS!” I rolled to my side, then slid over his shoulders and landed on my feet right next to his huge head. His eyes were closed and there was a ton of blood spilling from his face. I put my hand on the spike on top of his head. “Silas, grunt if you can hear me.”

He grunted.

Which only made the brown dragon whimper.